Maybe he forgot to get his flu shot this season. Considering Neil Young has had a career spanning 38 years if you count Buffalo Springfield, CSNY and Crazy Horse, that comes to roughly 28 solo albums, not counting movie soundtracks, live albums and compilations.

It seems bizarre only 8 years and 16 songs are represented on this new greatest hits collection. This means, if you break it down song by song, according to albums, only 2 percent of his entire repertoire is used.

According to the disclaimer on the back cover of the CD, allegedly written by Young himself, "Greatest hits inclusion based on original record sales, airplay and known download history." No doubt his record label (Reprise) is trying to recoup from the sales of last year's abysmal concept record "Greendale" and its accompanying DVD.

There is virtually nothing from Young's weird, confused, drugged-out period from the mid '70s, when he released albums such as "Time Fades Away" (1973), "On The Beach" (1974), "Zuma" and "Tonight's the Night" (both from 1975). The latter contained possibly his darkest and most distorted but most brilliant compositions.

Since this assortment of tunes was released on the Reprise label, you can forget about Young's "lost years" in the '80s, when he supposedly was releasing crappy albums to get out of his record contract with Geffen. This means there is zilch from "Trans" (1982), "Everybody's Rockin'" (1983), "Old Ways" (1985), etc. This leaves a big gap in his career, because it makes the jump from 1978 to 1991.

In fact, only one song from the '80s ("Rockin In The Free World") and one song from the '90s ("Harvest Moon") is represented here.

This greatest hits package is a compromise, playing it safe, playing by the rules, which is the antithesis of what Neil Young "the artist" is all about. Young always has been difficult and never was out to please anybody but himself.

Don't get me wrong. These are great songs, but I seriously doubt Young himself had anything to do with it. In the meantime, a more comprehensive representation and a more cost-effective investment of Young's work would still have to be 1977's "Decade." Rust never sleeps!